142 sn Eleanor Zelliot

was his home from childhood until he built a bungalow named Rajgriha in a middle-class area of Bombay in 1935. 7. The full poem has been translated from Marathi in my article. See Zelliot (1966). 8. Try as he would, Ambedkar did not succeed in gathering all untouchable castes of Maharashtra under his banner. Chambhars (now preferring Chamarkar as their name) and Maiangs did not convert to Buddhism and do not for the most part join in these Dalit demonstrations. Some refuse to use the word 'Dalit' to describe themselves. Generally, in each area, one caste will adopt Ambedkar as 7 its own and the other untouchable castes will act in opposition. 9. Mahad was the site of the burning of those parts of the classic law, the Manusmrttt, which legitimised in 1927 the restrictions placed on untouchables Ambedkar and After: and the punishments allotted them if they transgressed. On 25 December 1998, Dalit women's organisations of Maharashtra proceeded to Mahad to The Dalit Movement in India burn those parts of the ManusmriLi which degraded the role and nature of women. It was the anniversary of the historic Mahad conference which was seen as the first great event in the Ambedkar movement. The Kalaram Temple in Nashik was the site of a temple satyagraha which lasted from 1930 to 1955 and was unsuccessful in securing any religious rights. Then, at a conference held near Nashik, Dr Ambedkar announced he would Gail Omvedt convert and not die a Hindu.

The sun of self-respect has burst into flame— let it burn up these castes! Smash, break, destroy these walls of hatred. Crush to smithereens this eons-old school of blindness, Rise, 0 people!1

Turning their backs to the sun, they journeyed through centuries. Now, now we must refuse to become pilgrims of darkness. That one, our father, carrying, carrying the darkness is now bent; Now, now we must lift that burden from his back. Our blood was spilled for this glorious city And what we got was the right to eat stones. Now, now we must explode that building which kisses the sky! After a thousand years we were blessed with a sunflower-giving fakir; Now, now we must, like sunflowers, turn our faces to the sun.2

Dalit poetry frequently uses the sun as the imagery for the move- ment led by Dr B.R. Ambedkar, often seeing him as the sun and 144 eo Gail Omvedt Ambedkar and After: The Dalit Movement in India as 145 the bringer of a total new world. In his lifetime, Babasaheb Ambedkar did indeed give birth to a movement that encom- movement has been reformist. It has mobilised along caste lines passed all the needs of human society—economic, social, cultural, but made only half-hearted efforts to destroy caste; it has attempted political and spiritual. He sought a total transformation and in and achieved some real though limited societal changes, with gains doing so, attempted to make use of the best scholarship, the great- especially for the educated sections among Dalits, but it has failed est insights of his time. Yet, like other social movements, the 'post- to transform the society sufficiently to raise the general mass out Ambedkar Dalit movement'—a term many use for the Dalit move- of what is still among the most excruciating poverty in the world. ment in independent India—has today come under an eclipse. It Though this movement has carried forward the challenge of em- is floundering without a total vision. How did this happen? powerment and brought anti-caste issues into the political agenda, it still seems unable to become a decisive political force, leaving Dalits and other suppressed caste groups forced to bargain for Types of Social Movements concessions with the dominant political parties it characterises as 'Manuwadi', dominated by upper castes and the ideologies of Sociological theories distinguish social movements along two axes, Brahmanic Hinduism. The day promised by the 'new sun' seems whether they seek radical or limited change, and whether they focus still far away. on the entire society or on specific individuals. Alternative social To understand what has happened, we can begin looking at some movements see limited change among specific individuals, largely aspects of Dr Ambedkar's transformatory anti-caste movement. through remodelling lifestyles and behaviour (e.g., the hippie movement). Redemptive social movements try to change certain spheres of society (e.g., religious conversions). Reformist social movements attempt to change the entire society, but in limited Dr Ambedkar's Movement ways, while revolutionary social movements, finally, attempt radi- cal change in the entire society (Macionis 1995). Babasaheb Ambedkar made his entry into the political and social In terms of this paradigm, the anti-caste movement, which life of India in the period immediately after the First World War began in the 19th centuiy under the inspiration ofjyotiba Phule and the Russian Revolution. It was an era marked by social and and was carried on in the 1920s by the non-Brahman movements political upheaval and the increasing hegemony of Marxist so- in Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu and then developed under the cialism in movements for social liberation. Though Ambedkar leadership of Dr Ambedkar, had characteristics of all four types of organised and led one of these movements as an autonomous social movements though at its best it was revolutionary in terms movement for Dalit liberation, rejecting the leadership and ideo- of society and redemptive in terms of individuals. In partial con- logical hegemony of non-Dalit socialists, he was influenced by text, the 'post-Ambedkar Dalit movement' has had revolutionary Marxism throughout. His own theory which begins from the heri- practice. It has provided alternative ways of living, at some points tage of indigenous radicalism and stands in the tradition of limited and at some points radical and all-encompassing, ranging Phule's revolutionary challenge can appropriately be compared from changes in behaviour such as giving up beef-eating to reli- to it. gious conversion. It has focused on changes in the entire society, Marxism was a totalistic and unified theory of change. The from radical revolutionary goals of abolishing caste oppression industrial working class, according to it, was both the most op- and economic exploitation to the limited goals of providing scope pressed class in society and at the same time the most capable of for members of Scheduled Castes to achieve social mobility. leading other social groups to revolution. This thesis was backed But, on the whole, looking at the 50 years since independence by a comprehensive analysis of the causes of social conflict and (though slightly over 40 years since the death of Ambedkar), this contradictions, of the underlying nature of society, and thence of the factors necessary for change. 146 »D Gail Omvedt Ambedkor and After: The Dalit Movement in India GS 147

During much of his social and political life, roughly from the Minorities itself which seemed to contain two rather disparate sec- late 1920s through the 1940s, Ambedkar accepted most of the tions, one advocating land nationalisation and state socialism and economic analyses of Marxism and even attempted to organise the other calling for separate village settlements for Dalits. The along these lines, creating a radical movement of Mahar and connection between the two was not clear. The problems of any Kunbi peasants against landlords, allying with communists in the 'dual systems theory' remained: seeing separate systems of class working class struggle. These were years in which the pages of and caste exploitation left unchallenged the mechanical Marxist Janata, Ambedkar's weekly, were filled with reports of the strug- assumptions of a class analysis and accepted the idea that 'class' gles of workers and peasants against 'capitalists and landlords' as system of exploitation of dalits was an economic issue while the well as the fights of Dalits against atrocities. Ambedkar did not 'caste' system of exploitation was a cultural and ideological (super- have much time for theoretical writing in this period of tumultu- structural) issue. The dual systems of'capitalism' and 'Brahman- ous organising, but his programmes and speeches indicate that ism' provided useful rhetoric and a rule-of-thumb for analysis, he accepted broadly the Marxist analysis of class struggle so far as but it left the question of the connection between the two systems economic issues were concerned. What this led to, though, was a completely unresolved. And if the other systems of oppression kind of dual systems theory which saw capitalism and Brahman- (for instance, 'patriarchy' and 'national oppression') were also ism (casteism) as separate systems of exploitation, one to be fought included, then such an approach simply would yield to an un- by class struggle and the other by caste struggle. As he put it in his wieldy amalgam of many disparate 'systems' of exploitation. In famous address to the Mahar railway workers at Mahad: other words, the dual systems theory could not give an integrated and holistic explanation. It reflected Ambedkar's initial grappling There are in my view two enemies which the workers of this country have with Marxism when he insisted that 'caste' be added to a class to deal with. The two enemies are Brahminism and Capitalism .... By approach (and even in that it should have priority) but did not Brahminism I do not mean the power, privileges and interests of the develop an overall alternative theory. Brahmins as a community. By Brahminism I mean the negation of the As a result of this and some disillusionment with communism spirit of Liberty, Equality and Fraternity. In that sense, it is rampant in after the end of the Second World War, Ambedkar moved away all classes and is not confined to the Brahmins alone though they have from this analysis at the end of his life. As he moved closer to Bud- been the originators of it (reported in The Times of India, 14 Febru- dhism, he reinterpreted it and sought to use it. In The Buddha and ary 1938). His Dharma, he gave it a modernistic, 'liberation theology' inter- The climax of this approach, in many ways, came with the writing pretation that interpreted dukkha as exploitation and called for a of States and Minorities, proposed to be a draft of sections of the Sangha oriented to social welfare (Ambedkar), while in a draft Constitution. Here, Ambedkar gave a severe critique of capital- essay on 'Buddha and Karl Marx' he tried to give a broad outline ism and called for the nationalisation of land and basic industries, of what might be called 'Buddhist economics' seen as a conscious explicitly calling this 'state socialism'. In a sense, the term 'state alternative to Marxist socialism. As he summed up his position at socialism' indicated his difference with the communists in that in the conclusion of this essay: contrast to a revolution under 'working class leadership', the state ownership was to be written into a democratic constitution. At Society has been aiming to lay a new foundation as was summarised by another level, the phrase simply made the assumption of a the French revolution in three words, fraternity, liberty and equality. mechanical Marxism that 'socialism' or collective ownership of The French revolution was welcomed because of this slogan. It failed to the means of production was equivalent to state ownership. produce equality. We welcomed the Russian revolution because it aims There were, however, many problems with the 'dual systems' of to produce equality. But it cannot be too much emphasised that in pro- Brahmanism and capitalism. These became clear in State and ducing equality society cannot afford to sacrifice fraternity or liberty.

L Ambedkar and After: The Dalit Movement in India oa 149 J 48 soGailOmvedt defined sections of society which represented decisive fac- Equality will be of no value without fraternity or liberty. It seems that tors in contradiction and processes of social change.'1 the three can coexist only if one follows the way of the Buddha. Commu- J (4) Within India, Brahmanism/Hinduism was the historical nism can give one but not all (Ambedkar 1987d: 182; see also basis of the stratification system of the social inequality Omvedt 1996). which was constituted in the caste system. Hinduism meant the lack of liberty, the negation of equality for all groups Finally, in a long historical essay such as 'Revolution and Counter- especially for women and untouchables, and the destruc- Revolution in Ancient India', he offered broad-ranging analyses tion of community. Historically speaking, where a Bud- that linked Buddhism, Brahmanic Hinduism and cultural exploit- dhist upsurge had been revolutionary, Hinduism was the ation to large-scale political changes in India (Ambedkar 1987e). 'counter-revolution of ancient India'. All of this implied the creation of a theory that sought to be a Dalits or the ex-untouchables had a crucial role to play in totalistic and all-encompassing alternative to Marxism, wedding (5) the ideals expressed in the French Revolution, 'liberty, equality defeating Brahmanic Hinduism and opening the road to a and fraternity' (for gender purpose here, we will substitute 'com- society of equality and liberation. Whereas Ambedkar had munity'), with his analysis of the role of Buddhism and Brahman- originally emphasised the destruction of caste as a prereq- ism in Indian history and with an economic approach that groped uisite to economic equality (socialism), now he began to towards a social market economy. argue that untouchables were the carriers of Buddhism, This embryonic theory had the following characteristics: the liberatory message of Indian tradition. (6) The process of change involved internal (spiritual) change, the 'slave's rejection of slavery', and also a process of social (1) Ambedkar took as his basic goals the ending of exploit- struggle, political dialogue and political organising. Ambed- ation and oppression and the achievement of equality, lib- erty and community. He was flexible about what he called kar's rejection of violence was not a matter of absolute prin- it, insisting that it represented all that Marx had wanted to ciple, like the Gandhians, but simply because he saw it as achieve with 'communism' but frequently describing it as normally ineffective as a main method of change. Ambed- 3 kar's philosophy was an enlightenment philosophy that 'social democracy'. 6 (2) He had a vision of development that emphasised the cre- could be described as 'social liberation' combined with an ation of a modern society of abundance; though by the end emphasis on caste as a social reality; and it distinguished of his life he rejected the economics of Marxism, his posi- Ambedkar both from Marxists who saw the proletariat as tive approach to economic growth, his insistence on creat- revolutionary and neglected cultural and social factors, ing a society free from suffering and his readiness to take and from both the dominant Congress trends (not to men- the best of the global heritage was radically different from tion the Hindu right) which refused to see elements of a Gandhian orientation to the traditional village and limi- exploitation and oppression in Indian tradition. tation of needs.4 (3) The path to achieving this was backed up both by an understanding of the nature of human society and an After Ambedkar: The RPI and Buddhi, interpretation of Indian history. Human society, as he saw it, was characterised by conflict and contradiction but also In the last years of his life, Dr Ambedkar gave a beginning to two by reason and will. Not simply 'economic factors' were the institutions he saw as necessary for the liberation of his people motivating force in history, but also efforts to achieve and the welfare of the country: Buddhism and the Republican power and efforts at liberation. Similarly, along with class Party, a spiritual force and a political platform. Both were seen as caste (and by implication patriarchy) were stratification- 150 so Gail Omvedt Ambedkar and After: Vie Dalit Movement in India ca 151

more than the vehicles of the ex-untouchables. For religious and Patil) in land satyagrahas in 1956 and 1965, aimed at gaining cultural change, he hoped that all of India would become 'Pra- access to forest land and 'common' lands for cultivation by Dalits buddha BharaC and experience a cultural renaissance. For political and other landless. But by the late 1960s, it had subsided into a struggle, he hoped that the Republican Party would be a vehicle co-opted and stagnant party, with some alliance with the Con- for all who sought to achieve the great goals, surpassing the nar- gress in exchange for patronage, and with membership and lead- row confines of the Scheduled Caste Federation. ership drawn only from ex-Mahars. Thus, even in Maharashtra, But this was not to happen. Ambedkar himself could not really the centre of Ambedkar's efforts, the Dalit movement remained establish either the RPI or the organisational form of Buddhism. confined within the boundaries oi~jati. The RPI itself was formed with a constitution that emphasised its The creative and transformatory potential of the Dalit move- broad approach, projecting itself as a party of all the oppressed ment, however, was shown by the fact that it took only a little over sections. Yet, it was little more than a change of name for the 10 years after Dr Ambedkar's death for the stalemate to be shat- already-existing Scheduled Caste Federation. The dilemma of tered. Following the stagnation in the first decades of independ- how Ambedkarite Buddhism (now referred to by many as 'nava- ence, about the same time as the upsurge of Naxalism in the 1960s, yana Buddhism') would be carried on was, in many ways, even came the beginnings of a powerful poetry of protest in Maha- greater since there was not even any existing institution. The rashtra, the Dalit Sahitya Movement, It was sacrilegious ('One main Buddhist organisation in India, the Mahabodhi Society, was day I cursed that motherfucker god ...'), defying cheap patriot- mainly staffed by Sinhalese Buddhist monks but was headed in ism ('Shout victory to the revolution, but burn, burn those who India by (of all people) Shyam Prasad Mookerji (thus giving cre- strike a blow at tradition'), renouncing fundamentalism and dence to the Hindutva position that Buddhism was only a form of expressing the raw urge of the rebellious youth. Hinduism and Buddha was the ninth avatar of Vishnu). Ambed- Then came the Panthers ... kar could not but reject this, and in the vacuum it was English- based Buddhist converts who took up the task of consolidating Buddhism among Dalits immediately following Ambedkar's death and formed the Trailokya Bauddh Mahasangh. The Dalit Pantners and the New Dalit Movement Both, Buddhism in India and the Republican Party of India remained not simply 'Dalit' institutions, but institutions limited to 'We don't want a little place in brahman galli, we want the rule of the whole land...our revolution will flash like lightning ....' So specificjatis among Dalits: Mahars in Maharashtra and scattered 8 groups of Chamars (known asjatavas in the 20th century) in UP proclaimed the 1972 manifesto of the Dalit Panthers, born in the Buddhist conversion allowed for a tremendous change in the slums of Bombay but spreading to cities and villages throughout consciousness of ex-untouchables but it did not produce much of the country, proclaiming revolt. The Manifesto, the Dalit Panthers' a change in their social identity. Almost no caste Hindus followed intervention in electoral politics to help the defeat of Congress them in converting, and the result was that Buddhism itself be- and their readiness to engage in street fighting against the Shiv came rather 'untouchable' in India. Sena, hurled them into fame. It was a defining moment of the In the case of the RPI, though it had enough of a base in UP post-Ambedkar Dalit movement in India, a moment that was an and elsewhere to achieve the status of an 'all-India party' (its ele- upsurge giving inspiration to all of India. phant symbol today, though, has been taken over by the BSP),7 in Along with the Naxalite movement, the Dalit Panthers emerged Maharashtra it not onlf remained a party of Mahars, but factions as a mass symbol of revolt. 'Will the caste war turn into a class within it were based upon sub-castes. The RPI had genuine rad- war?' asked journalists, some with fear, some hopefully. It was the ical moments, under the leadership of Dadasaheb Gaikwad, when massive stirring of the Dalit rural poor in village ghettos through- it joined socialists and communists (under the leadership of Nana out the country that was the basis of the conflicts seen as the 'caste 152 IO Gail Omvedt Ambedkar and After: The Dalit Movement in India ca 153

war' that many hoped would turn into a 'class war'. The Panthers been for so long structured and confined by caste and power. On with their fervour of raw revolt and their poetry of hope, born in the one hand, Dalits fought against the casual claims of upper- response to a deadened Republican Party and taking the ideology caste men over Dalit and other poor women; on the other, the of movement far beyond that, gave this symbolism and ideology. sparking event of many atrocities—mass attacks on Dalit commu- Following the Panthers, the Dalit movement throughout the nities or socially organised murders and beatings of many Dalit country took on a multifaceted expression. In Karnataka, Dalit youth—was very often the defiance of caste restrictions occurring students and youth organised themselves after a rioting incident even in villages when upper-caste girls fell in love with Dalit boys provoked by the statement of a Dalit minister that upper-caste and the entire society fell on them with fury.10 dominated Kannada literature was only bhoosa ('cattlefeed'); caste The Dalit upsurge then found varying issues: the desire for rec- Hindu students attacked Dalits and Dalits not only retaliated ognition as human beings, the urge for education and a share in physically and with a poster war ('throw the Brahmins into the development, and the aspiration to political power. It took vary- gutter along with the Gita') but also organised themselves in a ing forms: efforts to gain power through the gun, through the series of local organisations that finally formed a state-wide Dalit schools, through the ballot, through marches in the streets and Sangharsh Samiti in 1974. In Bihar and Andhra, the rural Dalit rallies and meetings in slums and villages everywhere. It also upsurge was organised by Naxalites, and it is clear that along with included a wide variety of organisations, ranging from participa- economic issues of claiming a share of the village 'commons', tion in left party campaigns and organisations to autonomous higher wages or trying simply to counter landlords' dominance, organisations that usually characterised themselves as organisa- issues relating to caste and gender self-respect were paramount. tions of Dalits (even if they were often based on only a single Dalit The Bihar struggle had dated from the 1967-71 work of a poor jali). Sometimes attempts were also made to include other former village school teacher, Jagdish Mahto, who is said to have read 'Shudra' castes (or in an increasingly popular term, Bahujan)." Ambedkar before he had come across Marx, and organised Dalits The new movements achieved much. Moving beyond just wa- in his own town to demand 'Harijanistan'. As Arun Sinha later ging a defensive battle, they showed that Dalits were no longer described this movement: willing to suffer silently, that their interests had to be taken into account and their voices heard for any movement to succeed and for any government to be stable. The challenge to caste and the This man has risen from, the grave; he seems to have gone berserk and is rise of the low castes were put firmly on India's political agenda. frenziedly chopping the branches of feudalism. His desire is to see the In spite of atrocities—even rioting against Dalits—they were putt- 2,500-year-old tree felled here and now. So far he has only been humili- ing their stamp on India's institutions, from universities to gov- ated, whipped and slain, denied the status of a man; his wife treated as ernment offices. In spite of upper-caste oppositions, reservations a prostitute. Then one day somebody brought him news of Naxalbari were not reversed but extended, from SCs and STs to OBCs. They and things began lo change. The Harijan died, the Koen was burnt; the expressed support for the upsurge of other low castes, OBCs or new man who rose from the flames fell that he was neither a Harijan Bahujans. nor a Koeri but a man {Frontier 24-31 December 1977: 6).

case ignored by most of the slum youth who said, 'We didn't read Dr Ambedkar's saying that 'we must become a ruling commu- the manifesto, we only knew—if someone puts his hand on your nity', they also represented moments of breakthrough from the sister, cut it off!' Beyond militancy, the Panthers failed to elabo- stagnation of being only a 'Dalit movement'. rate a vision for the socio-economic programme of a new society Both sought to give Dalit leadership to all oppressed. The BSP and a strategy for moving forward. claimed to represent the 'exploited 85 per cent' of 'backward The militant Naxalite movement could not do this either. While castes' including Dalits, adivasis, OBCs and minorities; its most it expressed the Dalit upsurge in some of the most backward rural significant slogan in many ways was 'jot todo, samajjodo'. The first areas, it never allowed a real Dalit vision to fertilise Marxism in actions of the BRP were to organise a campaign against the Maha- India. The Naxalites remained stuck in the theoretical bank- rashtra sugar barons' control of sugar factories; later, it formed ruptcy of borrowed Maoism; even to the end, they could see the Bhumiheen Hakk Sarankshan Samiti to take up the interests Dr Ambedkar as no more than a 'petty-bourgeois' misleader and of all landless. Both had some notable political success in becom- could not admit the reality of caste as a social structure (as sug- ing important players in the political scene. The BSP, in particu- gested even in the quotation by Arun Sinha given earlier). By the lar, made a mark in northern India by becoming an ally in the 1980s, leading Dalit cadres of the Peoples' War Group had re- government, first with Mulayam Singh, then after breaking with signed, charging the leadership with being Brahmanical. him (on the basis, however, of BJP support), producing the first As for Dalit Voice, though it began with the proclamation of Dalit woman chief minister in India. combining 'class' and 'caste' struggle, class issues began to be Yet, not only did both of them fail in crucial ways to achieve completely neglected. It provided a widely read and often spark- the goals of overall liberation and political leadership, they did ling journalism, and its editor Rajshekhar managed to write the not even attempt Ambedkar's most far-reaching goals. Whereas only humorous political tract in India 'Dialogue of the Bhoo- Ambedkar always had a broader economic, social and cultural devatas', but its thrust was vitriolic and ultimately negative. On programme backing his political thrust and took positions on all the one hand, Rajshekhar claimed that the Dalit movement was the crucial issues of his day, the BSP was content to have a 'one- the core social movement in India which could take leadership of point programme' of political power, arguing that everything else all others; on the other, he only poured scorn on environmental- would automatically flow from this. And the BRP, in turn, seemed ism, feminism and other social movements without any serious content to remain a Dalit (Mahar) party; even when it sought to discussion of their issues or attempts to provide alternatives. This promote a 'Bahujan' identity, it did so by helping the formation of a separate Bahujan Mahasangh. It was, in one sense, a major step was symptomatic of a larger failure. Until today, sadly, the Dafit f forward to encourage the independent political action of the movement as a whole has failed to evolve its own perspective on/ OBCs. But at another level, it was an admission that the BRP the problems of environment and women, though Dalit womeri would remain a party of Dalits only, and that the other oppressed have been active from the very beginning of the movement and \ castes needed a separate organisation. Prakash Ambedkar even Dalit and Bahujan feminist organisations have begun to emerge. justified this with an article 'Every Caste a Nation', and in fact, the mid-1990s have seen a retreat to caste-based politics in many ways, so the politics ofjati identity. The Problems of Jati Identity Politics The principle of separation seemed to be at work everywhere. The reaction to the hegemony of Buddhists in Maharashtra, The Panthers represented non-parliamentary militancy; the Malas in Andhra, etc., was for the smaller, less-liberated Dalit political parties expressed the same aspiration within the political castes to emphasise their own identity and sometimes a 'Hindu' system. A political party should express a broader political agenda, identity, distinct from others. Acceptance of this by the leadership and in their own ways, the BSP and BRP not only sought to fulfil of Dalits gave endorsement to a process that many social scientists 156 £o Gail Omvedt Ambedkar and After: The Dalit Movement in India ca 157 thought was happening anyway, in which the caste system was being transformed through the solidification of jatis, competing presumed to be qualified because it promised socialism—equality partly with each other as 'vote banks' and achieving some social and development, and advance of the productive forces—to all mobility without a loss of caste identity. This was representative of sections of society. What do Dalits promise, besides reservations the failure of vision for the entire Dalit-led anti-caste movement. and a claim to equality or a warmed-over version of Marxism And it was put forward as a principle by Rajshekhar of Dalit Voice interpreted as state socialism? This has never been made clear in who argued that Brahmanism should be fought by maintaining the post-Ambedkar era. and strengtheningjati identity rather than destroying it. The result can be seen in the parliamentary elections of 1998: Dalits have moved forward in politics in many states from simply The Challenges Ahead being 'vote banks' controlled by Brahman-bourgeois political par- ties (usually the Congress) to becoming voting blocs—autono- And this was not what Babasaheb Ambedkar intended. The anti- mous, acting on their own and bargaining with the larger parties. caste movement, a cultural revolutionary movement spearheaded But these have proved to be jati-based blocs: the united RPI in by Mahatma Phule in the 19th century and Dr Ambedkar in the Maharashtra (where Prakash Ambedkar was finally forced to 20th century, and with all its aspects of being an alternative way of merge his BRP with the other Republican faction) could get four candidates elected in open seats through its alliance with Sharad living, of working for reforms, of redeeming Indian society from Pawar's Congress, but these are all Buddhists and the other Dalit the hold of Brahmanism, was basically a transformative social jatis (Matangs, Chambhars) are already unhappy and mobilising movement. It sought to deal with the problems of caste and Brah- on their own, liable to be won over by the BJP-Shiv Sena Hin- manism, and went beyond this talk of issues of development in a dutva forces. In UP, BSP's vaulting ambitions took a crash; with way far different from either the Nehruvians or more dogmatic no allies, it won 25 per cent of the vote but only four seats in UP Marxists or the village-romantic Gandhians. Liberty, equality and drawing a blank in both Punjab and Madhya Pradesh, and fraternity, social transformation, political power, economic philoso- Kanshi Ram himself losing. In UP, this was a result of the failure phy, and cultural transformation were all on its agenda. to make the necessary Dalit-OBC alliance with Mulayam Singh The 'post-Ambedkar Dalit movement' was ironically only that Yadav's Samajwadi Party; the effect was to throw the state to the in the end—a movement of Dalits, challenging some of the deep- BJP. In Tamil Nadu, Dalits in the southern districts organised an est aspects of oppression and exploitation, but failing to show the independent party after a long bitter conflict with the OBC way to transformation. Thevar community. When the DMK-TMC front refused to ac- This failure of one of the potentially most powerful social forces commodate them, they put up their own candidates, winning in Indian society has left a gap. In terms of economic and political enough votes to give several seats to the Jayalalitha-led saffron transformation, the only powerful ideological currents seem to be alliance. Thus, the overall result of Dalit political assertion in 1998 either an unadulterated acceptance of capitalist transformation has been highly ambivalent and fragile. It is a genuine assertion or the new wave of swadeshi Hindutva. The latter while opposing and represents a step forward, but if it stops there, the Hindutva 'Western commercialism' and globalisation in the name of the 'sa- wave is likely to go on prevailing. cred Indian (Hindu) culture' seeks to maintain a closed economy It was clear by 1998 that it is not enough to say 'We must to serve the needs of bureaucrats and big industrialists, Brah- become a ruling community", a political movement has to have a mans and Banias. The rejection of the modern world seen in broad agenda and a vision of transformation or development; it Gandhian ecological fundamentalism, or the weak voices of left has to say why it should rule and what it has to offer. To go back to nostalgia for Nehruvian statism have proved no alternative; they the comparison with Marxism, the 'proletariat as vanguard' was have in fact only fed the flames of swadeshi. In spite of their promises, there is little room for a transformation in the interest 158 so Gail Omvedt Ambedkar and After: The Dalit Movement in India GS 159

of Dalits and low castes in this, and this has provided the gap for a represented this pluralism in the analysis of social stratification. Ambedkar rising Hindutva. As one Dalit poet had written: may also be fruitfully compared to W.E.B. DuBois, who sought to combine 'race' and 'class' in a radical sociological analysis during almost the same period. From pitch-black tunnels 6. Ralf Dahrendorf has distinguished 'classical liberalism', 'social liberalism' and they gather ashes 'neoliberalism' as basic types within the liberal tradition (with libertarianism floating on jet-black water and some forms of anarchism representing a kind of extreme); see his essay in and reconstruct the skeletons Dahrendorf (1989). of their ancestors ... 7. The name 'Republican' and choice of the elephant as a symbol were taken because of the Dalit identification of the Republicans as the party of Lincoln There is no entry here who symbolised the ending of slavery. Ironically, Ambedkar himself was fully for the new sun (Rashingkar 1992). aware that Lincoln's primary goal in the Civil War was to hold the Union together, not to end slavery, and that the Emancipation Proclamation had been issued only when the two goals could be achieved together. Neither the majority of Dalits nor (presumably) Ambedkar cared that in other ways the Note Republicans represented the more conservative political party in the U.S. 8. See translation in Joshi (1986). The Manifesto, written partly in Naxalite lan- 1. From a Marathi song of the 1970s anti-caste movement. guage, hardly touched the raw anger of the Dalit slum youth. As one later 2. From a poem by Namdev Dhasal translated by Jayant Karve and Eleanor said, 'We didn't know what was in the manifesto; all we knew was-—if anyone Zelliot. See Anand and Zelliot (1992). puts his hand on your sister, cut it off!' 3. In bis final spcecli introducing India's Constitution, he used the term "social 9. Mahto is supposed to have stated just before his death, in words strikingly democracy' rather than 'socialism'; this undoubtedly was due to the fact that he similar to those of the Bombay youth: 'Brother, I know that I am going to die assumed 'socialism' to be equivalent to the statism and lack of democracy in the one of these days. But I will die partly satisfied. For one change that our Soviet Union. It was a natural assumption, given that communists in India also movement has brought about is that the landlords now do not dare to touch assumed this. Presented with a genuine decentralised form of market social- the women of the poor' (Sinha 1987) ism, Ambedkar might well have described himself as a socialist at the end of his 10. Interestingly enough, participants in a national seminar on Dalit studies at life; also, he was a liberal and a democrat but with a strong emphasis on a politi- the University of Calicut, 17-19 February 1998, praised Arundhati Roy's The cal and economic system that could provide for the welfare and equality of the God of Small Things for being the first novel to 'open up' this theme. Dalit most oppressed sections of society. The question of'socialism' and 'democracy' women such as Ruth Manoraina of Bangalore and Kuinud Paude of Nagpur here is the more fundamental issue of reconciling/mediating socialism and had always been leading forces in the women's movement, but it was only in liberalism. the mid-1990s that they began to organise themselves separately. 4. This was expressed most starkly in an early essay where he attacked the notion 11. The terms used by Jyotiba Phule were 'Shudra' and Ati-Shudra1; later the of limitation of needs: non-Brahman movement in Maharashtra described itself as a movement of This time-honoured complain! of the moralists against 'love of money' is only apart of the Bahujan Samaj vs Shetji-Bhatjis. The term 'Dalit' began to be used in their general complaint against the goods of the world and finds its justification in the Ambedkar's movement apparently by the late 1930s and perhaps a bit later in economic circumstances which gave rise to this particular belief.... At a time when the north India. whole world was living in 'pain economy' as did the ancient world and when the pro- ducthnty of human labour was extremely low and when no efforts could augment its return, in short, when the whole world was living m poverty, it is but natural that mor- alists should have preached the gospel of poverty and renunciation of worldly pleasure only because they were not to be had (Ambedkar 1979: 489). 5. In this, it might be argued that Ambedkar comes closest to Max Weber whose pluralism is summed up in his famous phrase, 'Not ideas but material and ideal interests, directly govern men's conduct- Yet very frequently the "world images" that have been created by "ideas" have, like switchmen, determined the tracks along which action has been pushed by the dynamic of interest' (cited from Gerth and Mills 1978: 280). Weber's categories of 'class, status and party'